Drought continues for NSW farmers despite welcome rain drenching parts of state

The town of Yamba on New South Wales' north coast has been the biggest beneficiary of the rain that swept through much of the state over the weekend, with areas around the Coff Harbour area also receiving much-needed drenching.
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Rainfall data provided by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) for the 48 hours to 9:00am on Monday morning shows the major falls were confined to the state’s north coast, but rain was also felt as far inland as Bourke, about 850 kilometres inland from the coast.
Yamba, between Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour, recorded the most rain with 87 millimetres.
BOM NSW forecaster Stephen Stefanac said seven of the top ten stations were within the City of Coffs Harbour itself, so the Bureau combined that number to just one to include a broader cross-section of the state.
But according to the BOM, the state needs at least another four or five big rain events in close succession to officially end the drought, with this weekend’s rain only «scratching the surface».
A light cold front is expected to hit the state on Friday, but it is expected to only bring light falls.
BOM’s modelling has also pointed towards drier-than-average conditions in areas west of the divide during spring — and warmer conditions ahead.
Irrigation help ‘band-aid for bullet hole’
The rain fell after the NSW Government this week announced 15,000 megalitres of water previously reserved for environmental purposes would be released for sale to farmers and irrigators.
Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton said it was a «sensible» measure that would help alleviate the impact of the «tough tragic drought».
But not all farmers were happy, with some in the town of Deniliquin calling for a water allocation for irrigators in the Murray Valley, and 400 people gathering this morning to protest.
There is no allocation for irrigators in the area, but according to Government data, some dams in the Murray Valley were «between 50 to 90 per cent full».
Barooga irrigator Chris Brooks said the allocation announced by the NSW Government was nowhere near enough.
«That is a band-aid on a bullet hole,» he said.
«It’s just an insignificant amount of water for what we’re talking about. We want 400,000 megalitres.
«A couple of farms would have 15,000 megalitres individually, but 15,000 megalitres will not save the volume of crops that are recently planted and dying from drought.»
When is a drought finished?
The NSW Government says 100 per cent of the state is now in drought, and according to the BOM, that status is set to continue for the foreseeable future.
The state’s Department of Primary Industries determines drought status based on data from the bureau.
While BOM said the final ruling was not their call, the rainfall over the weekend would not be sufficient to affect the current status.
However, despite the bleak forecast, dairy farmer Paul Weir said the weekend’s rain had «taken the pressure off».
«It hasn’t forgotten how to rain, and sometimes when you get into a drought you think that it has forgotten how to rain, so it is good,» said Mr Weir, whose farm is near Lismore.
«The feed costs haven’t gone away and it won’t go away with a good bit of rain, but if we can grow a bit more grass we may be able to take a little bit of that pressure off.»

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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